Regularly seen on site, talking with management and tradies about health, hydration and diet, THORZT’s Australasian Category Manager and Olympian David Rhodes is well positioned to discuss the parallels between athletes and industrial workers and how the THORZT program has been designed.

David Rhodes digging deep.

Forty one year-old David Rhodes is the image of good health. Tall, lean and strong he looks like a man who spends a lot of time working out.

Yet these days, ‘Rhodesy’ doesn’t train like he used to. The 41-year-old is busy with his three young children and teaching the foundations of health and wellness to blue collar workers and the next generation of Olympians.

“I coach the North Burleigh surf club, looking after the ski program,” said Rhodes, who himself competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics in the K21000-metre kayak and finished agonisingly close to a medal.

“I get on the water four days a week [for about an hour]. That’s as much as I want to dedicate to it now,” he said, adding that he still competes in ‘The Aussies’ – Australia’s National Surf Life Saving Competition on the Gold Coast – called off in 2017 due to Cyclone Debbie.

Despite not exercising as much as he used to, Rhodes said keeping fit and healthy is not rocket science.

“It’s being brilliant with the basics. We overlook it and overcomplicate it most of the time.”

“Number one, set up your day right,” he said, speaking of consuming a healthy breakfast and hydrating before work.

“Number two, consume the right food and hydration at the right time.”

That doesn’t mean being a monk, according to Rhodes, who abides by the 80-20 rule.

“It’s about life balance. Eighty per cent of the time I eat really well. Twenty per cent of the time I enjoy a beer, red wine and pizza. Pizza with the kids on a Friday night is a ritual.”

But are tradies athletes?

Rhodes said the workload and often extreme conditions that tradies and other blue collar workers face on sites – especially in the tropics – are not dissimilar to those he faced as an athlete.

“We identified really early on the parallels of being an athlete and industrial workers.”